Tuesday, July 04, 2000
CPS teachers say evaluations fair
By Andrea Tortora
The Cincinnati Enquirer
More than 55 percent of Cincinnati Public Schools teachers who participated in a field study of a new performance-based pay system think the program is fair.
An evaluation of the system's one-year test in 10 CPS schools was released by the district Monday.
That report includes the results of interviews and surveys of the 291 teachers who took part.
Kathleen Ware, CPS associate superintendent, said the teacher response was more positive than she expected.
“This is a monumental change,” Ms. Ware said. “For the first people to go through it to embrace it heavily is very good.”
The district still has a hard sell on its hands.
The survey found:
• Only 19 percent in one of two teacher groups that participated, and 32 percent in the second group, see the plan as a selling point for new teachers.
• Only about 15 percent in one group and 22 percent in the other group say the system will encourage good teachers to stay within the district.
• Only about 10 percent in one group and 15.5 percent in the other group say the merit-pay system makes working for CPS more attractive.
The one-year field study had 36 teachers on the “comprehensive review,” which determines pay scale.
Another 255 teachers took the “annual review,” where teachers chose two areas in which they were evaluated.
The system calls for ad ministrators and trained peer evaluators to rate teachers in 16 different areas.
Those scores are applied to a pay scale, and teachers would be evaluated at least every five years — every other year if they choose. In the non-evaluation years, teachers do a self-appraisal and pick areas where they need work.
Cincinnati's board of education approved the plan for implementation in May, making the district the first in the country to take such a step.
The plan still needs approval from the 3,600-member Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. That vote will take place in early Sep tember.
Numbers that show how teachers fared — and what their raises would have been — won't be available until the end of the month. Ms. Ware said that information is still being evaluated by researchers at the University of Iowa.
Based on their scores, teachers would be placed in a category, each with a corresponding pay range. The range matches the current range under the seniority scale, from $30,000 for a starting teacher to $62,500 for an accomplished teacher.
The real question as to the system's success is the workload for evaluators and principals, said Robert Sturdevant, a 10-year teacher at the Jacobs Center.
Most of the administrators involved in the study had concerns about the amount of time and paperwork involved.
A substantial minority of teachers said the evaluation was stressful, undesirable, unnecessary or unlikely to have a substantial effect on them. Ms. Ware said that did not surprise her.
“There are people who think this, too, will pass,” Ms. Ware said. “The only way to overcome that feeling is to disprove it.”
The committee of union teachers and CPS administrators who spent the last two years developing this merit-pay system will meet next week to discuss ways to streamline the program.
One suggestion: reducing the number of teacher classroom observations from six to five.
A larger number of specially trained evaluators will also be employed, removing some of the burden from principals.
“If we're going to have reform in the education system it has to start in human resources,” Mr. Sturdevant said.
“A strong point of this system is that it will attract a more confident candidate for the system,” he said. “We want to help recruit the best and brightest. When a person realizes he can be hired and move through the salary structure in eight years, that's pretty impressive.”
SURVEY RESULTS
• Teachers who understood the program's standards: 80 percent of those on comprehensive review; 80 percent of those on annual review.
• Teachers who think the standards are right for CPS schools: 67 percent on comprehensive; 43 percent of annuals.
• Teachers who think improving their performance on the standards would help them teach better: 65 percent on comprehensive; 51 percent of annuals.
• Time spent on the evaluation: The median time spent by comprehensives was 30 hours. Only 26 percent of annuals said they spent more than 20 hours during the school year.
• Fairness: Teachers who think they will get or did receive a fair evaluation: 55 percent of comprehensives; 78.6 percent of annuals.
• Impact: Teachers who said the process helped them develop as a teacher: 35 percent of comprehensives; 37 percent of annuals.
• Effort: Teachers who said the process takes more effort than the results are worth: 33 percent of comprehensives; 42 percent of annuals.
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